Devil's Food Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #14)(74)

“With a twenty-two?” Hannah guessed.

“You’re good, Hannah. And you’re right. The gun was never recovered. Now tell me who the mynah bird fingered for being in the church office.”

“Alice Vogel. She used to go out with Matthew in high school, and she met him again on the night he was killed.”

“No wonder she seemed rattled when Lonnie and I talked to her this afternoon!”

“Alice is even more rattled now. Michelle and I talked to her early this evening, and we told her that Paul was masquerading as Reverend Matthew and that Paul was the one who was murdered. Poor Alice just couldn’t take it in. She got Digger to fill in at the tournament for her and went straight home to try to regroup.”

“I wonder if Alice guessed that the man she met wasn’t Reverend Matthew,” Mike speculated. “If she thought she’d been duped, that might have made her angry enough to …”

“Stop!” Hannah interrupted. “Alice didn’t do it. She’s got an alibi. We talked to Digger, and he said that Alice was back at the bowling alley by twenty to twelve Sunday night.”

“Okay, but she could have gone back after she closed.”

“She could have, but the time frame’s wrong. Alice didn’t close until after two in the morning. She had Night Owl League for the DelRay employees who get off at eleven.”

Mike looked thoughtful. “Did you ask her if she saw anyone around the church?”

“Of course I did. She said absolutely nothing was moving when she walked to her car. No one walking, no cars driving by, no other cars parked in front of the parsonage, the church, or in the church lot.”

“Okay. I’d better talk to her for form’s sake, but it can wait until I chase down another couple of leads.”

“Leads?” Hannah asked, leaning forward.

Mike leaned forward too, and cupped his hands around her face. “No,” he said, giving her lips a brush with his. “That’s enough for tonight. When you get more, call me and we’ll do another exchange.”

Mike stood up, pulled her to her feet, and gave her a hug. “So tell me what you’re going to take a look at next and then I have to go. It’s getting late.”

Hannah thought for a moment even though thinking was difficult to do in the warm circle of Mike’s arms. “I’m going to talk to some of the people Paul knew when he went to Jordan High,” she said quite truthfully.

“Okay.”

Hannah was surprised. “That’s all right with you?”

“It’s fine with me. I’m not pursuing that particular avenue, so we won’t get in each other’s way.”

In other words, you don’t think I’ll find out anything important, Hannah’s mind interpreted Mike’s response, but of course she didn’t say that.

“Now go to bed and I’ll lock the door behind me,” Mike said, hugging her once more and then heading for the door. “You’d better get a couple hours of sleep before it’s time for you to get up again.”





WELSH RAREBIT

If you don’t have a toaster, DO

NOT preheat the oven quite yet. If

you do have a toaster, preheat the

oven to 450 degrees F. (a very hot

oven), rack in the middle position.

Hannah’s 1st Note: I usually double this recipe so that it will serve 4 people, even when I make it for only 2 people. Everybody in my family wants another slice!

2 large slices good white bread (I used egg bread from the deli—you could also use thick-sliced French toast bread)





4 large eggs

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated





? teaspoon dry mustard





Tabasco or your favorite hot pepper sauce (I used Slap Ya Mama made by Walker & Sons)





salt





freshly ground black pepper





1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar





Toast the bread in your toaster until it’s golden brown. If you don’t have a toaster, lay the bread flat on your broiler pan and toast the first side, watching carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn. When it’s golden brown, flip it over and toast the other side.

Remove the bread from the toaster (or the broiler pan) immediately. If you used the broiler, shut it off and set the oven to bake at 450 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

(Your oven will already be very close to that temperature if you used the broiler.)

Find a baking pan that will hold both slices of bread comfortably. Spray it with Pam or another nonstick baking spray. (I use an 8-inch square pan unless I double the recipe. Then I use a half steam table disposable foil pan placed on a cookie sheet to support the bottom.)

Place the toast in the bottom of the baking pan.

Separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Here’s how to do it for this recipe:

Crack egg #1, and pull the shell into two parts. Do a little juggling to drain off the white part into a medium-sized bowl. Dump the yolk that’s left in the shell into another medium-sized bowl.

Repeat this process for egg #2 and egg #3.

Get out a little refrigerator container, the kind that will hold one egg yolk.